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CENTRAL CITY MARKET
IS URGED TO CUT HIGH
PRICES ATLANTA PAYS
COST OF LIVING INCREASE SHOWN
IN THE LARGEST CITIES OF U. S.
rffE following tabic shows the prices charged for Keren staple ar
ticles of food by dealers of the same rank in fifteen of the larg
est cities in the country, according to figures compiled by experts
of the Department of Labor. The total in the last column shows how
much the consumer in each of the fifteen cities paid for his order of a
pound of sirloin, round steak, pork chops, bacon, ham, eggs and cream
ery butter.
Sirloin Round Pork
Steak. Steak. Chops. Bacon. Ham. Eggs. Butter. Total.
Boston ..... .38 35 .24 .28 .32 .35 .30 $2.22
ATLANTA .. . 37>/ 2 .20 .22J/ 2 .37 2Z/ 2 .30 .40 1.99'4
New York 25 .25 .22 .24 .28 .31 .41 1.96
Cincinnati , ... 38 .25 32 .30 .30 .20 .42 1.97
Los Angeles ... .25 .20 .25 .30 .35 30 .35 1.95
Seattle 22 30 .25 .30 .30 .25 .40 1.92
Denver 32'/ 2 30 30 .35 .30 35 .40 1.92’/ 2
Baltimore 24 .22 .20 .28 .30 .24 .40 1.88
Kansas City ... .25 .20 .22 .30 .30 .20 .40 1.87
Chicago . .... .25 30 .18 .30 .30 .20 .40 1.83
Charleston 22 .20 30 .25 .28 .25 .40 1.82
Buffalo 24 .20 31 .22 .27 .25 .40 1.79
Washington ... .25 33 .22 35 .20 .22 .42 1.79
• Cleveland .... 35 ..22 .22 .26 31 .22 .40 1.78
Detroit 26 .18 20 .23 .24 .22 .39 L 66
Government Estimates Show Gate
City Second Only to Boston in
Living Expenses—Shopping Condi
. tions Barrier to Effective Economy.
Why ts the cost of living higher in
Atlanta than in any other city of
the United States, Boston alone ex
cepted?
Careful and widespread Investiga
tion by the Federal Government, im
‘ partially distributed throughout the
Union, places Atlanta right near the
top notch as an expensive city in
which to live, and although explana
tions of this unsavory indictment
have been many and varied, no one
of them has seemed to explain com
pletely and convincingly.
And yet, there must be some rea
son why the cost of living is rela
tively so high in Atlanta—in Atlan
ta, where, of all places, it should be
at least as reasonable as the average,
if not below the. average, taking into
consideration the very many advan
tages Atlanta unquestionably has as a
place of residence.
Some of Atlanta’s marketmen
frankly admit that the Government’s
figures do Atlanta no injustice what
ever. They say’ the cost of living is
high in this city, and that they can
not help it—er, at least, if they can
the way has not yet been shown
them.
Other marketmen vehemently deny
that there is anything whatever about
Atlanta’s marketing situation that
differentiates it conspicuously or un
favorably from any other city, and
that the Government figures simply
make a mountain out of a molehill,
to Atlanta's senseless discredit.
Various reasons are assigned for
the high cost of living in the Gate
City of the South.
High Living Blamed.
Atlanta people merely are high
livers, and pay lhe price because it
suits them to do just that; the farm
ers do not diversify their crops suf
ficiently to make Georgia independent
<>f the outside world, which they
might do easily enough; Georgia
farmers do not raise beef, and for that
reason the city is dependent upon the
West for its meat supply, and this
runs up the cost of living tremen
dously; rents are abnormally high in
Atlanta, and the merchants have to
add to their margin of expense suf
ficiently to take care of the rent, of
course, and this the consumer neces
sarily pays; cotton crowds all other
lines of agricultural industry so close
ly that many foodstuffs must be ob
tained from sources beyond the State,
at a higher rate of expense than
would be entailed if wheat, oats and
corn were raised at home; butter,
that might be made in Georgia, is not
made here in particularly apprecia
ble quantity, and that keeps the price
of butter up; freight rates are dis
criminatory, and people do not shop
. intelligently, anyway!
Whatever the cause may be for the
high cost of living in Atlanta, how
ever, one thing seems to stand out
undisputed—the cost of living is some
lugh. all right!
*lndeed, there is no topic in which
the public, the home makers, espe
- daily, is so vitally and compellingly
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interested as this problem of living
within the family income.
As the matter stands, they not only
are "up against It” to the limit every
month, but constantly are in dread
that conditions may grow to be even
worse.
And Mr. and Mrs. Atlanta are not
pessimists—far be pessimism and
such from them!
They believe In their home town—
they have been swearing by, and not
at, this fair city for years, and they
propose to proceed right along that
optimistic and primrosed path in the
future.
It is only that they are able to see
the point when Atlanta is unfavora
bly held up in comparison with other
cities. And it ever has been their
ability to meet outside criticism fair
ly and manfully, to recognize unto
ward conditions and to remedy them
enthusiastically, that has made At
lanta the great and wonderful city
it is.
Estimates Are Truthful.
This writer has talked to many
persons of late concerning the prob
lem revealed to Atlanta In the recent
more or less disconcerting Govern
ment figures with respect to the high
cost of living.
The Government’s estimates are
truthful—they were based upon hon
est Investigations scattered all the
way from Maine to California No
body undertakes to dispute or ques
tion them. They concern themselves
with various staples of life—house
hold necessities that can not be dis
’n the average house
hold without serious discomfort both
to health and happiness.
Not very many households are fig
uring next year s expense account
upon the new tariff schedules, how
ever. Ask the first ten persons you
meet and see it anyone of them Is
taking the new tariff law seriously
into consideration as a possible factor
in relieving perceptibly tile present
expense of living.
What, then, if anything, CAN be
done to bring down the expense of
living in Atlanta?
Well, there is one housekeeper in
Atlanta who has some notions about
things, and her ideas are worth con
sidering. for they suggest a method
whereby conditions mav be remedied
In a measure in Atlanta, if not tre
mendously relieved.
Work of Housekeeper.
This woman, who is the wife of an
Atlantan receiving a monthly salary
of $l5O. and the mother of three chil
dren, talks after this fashion:
"The questions of freight rates di
versification of crops and the like' are
things for the business.men to set
tle, 1 think, and no doubt each has its
specific bearing upon the cost of liv
ing. Inasmuch as the men are as
deeply concerned In this problem as
the women—the one the bread-win
ners and the other the bread-dis
tributors inside the family—l take it
that they will not shirk the respon
sibility of regulating those things in
due season.
"My business is to distribute the
money my husband gives me for
housekeeping •purposes intelligently
economically and with as great re
sults as I possibly can manage. Notn
ing distresses me more than to think
that 1 have frittered away or used to
small purpose so much as a dime of
the hard-earned salary my husband
provides for the home and its up
keep.
"Mv husband puts, and rightfully,
the responsibility of shopping and
marketing on me. I should not ra
sped him so much as I do if he didn’t.
I And then, having put the responsibl’-
ity there, he turns me loose and he
HEARST’S SUNDAY AMERICAN, ATLANTA, GA., SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 21, 1913<
801 l Weevil Will Cut Atlanta’s Cost of Living, Economist Believes
Atlanta’s higrh cost of living prob
lem blds fair to be solved, in part, by
a small, black insect, hitherto regard
ed as an enemy of mankind, in the
opinion of Samuel F. Wallace, profes
sor of economics at Georgia School
of Technology.
The friendly bug Just has arrived in
one corner of Georgia, and all the
State’s agricultural experts, as soon
as the tidings came, hurried to Missis
sippi and Louisiana to acquire the
knowledge which will enable them to
make successful war on it.
But in the end they will bless the
“pest,” Professor Wallace thinks. Its
name is the boll weevil.
The professor does not make the
bold assertion that the boll weevil
never 'make* a holler* If I fall to get
the maximum of result from the min
imum of financial effort. That, per
haps, is one thing that makes ne
feel so bad when I know, away down
in my heart, that I haven’t done ihe
very best that might be done with my
household money.
“The worst obstacle I find In dis
pensing my household funds intelli
gently is the apparent impossibility
of really intelligent marketing in At
lanta.
Good Food Hard to Find.
•1 do not think the quality of food
sold In Atlanta always is all that it
should be. Now, I do not mean by
that that I think it is not possible io
obtain the very best of food in At
lanta—for I think it is—but what I do
mean is that it is next to impossible
for the average marketer, which I im,
to locate the best that may be had
for a given sum.
“Take the average display of food
stuffs in the average Atlanta mar
ket and grocery store. Is it up io
high water mark? I think not. It
maybe that there has been a scarcity
of good, plump, sound tomatoes, for
Instance, this year, but I have not seen
it so stated anywhere. Yet it is a
fact that nowhere in Atlanta, with
perhaps an occasional exception, has
it been possible to see the best of
them on display this season.
■'Truck* gardening seems to have be
come a lost art around and about At
lanta. In the remoter residential sec
tions wagons fresrf from the farms
visit households occasionally, and
sweet, tender vegetables, fresh eggs,
country butter and the like may be
had—but the total sum of this sort of
shopping in Atlanta is relatively notn
ing.
Small Store; Big Price.
“If a housekeeper has to pay even
the downtown price for produce thus
acquired, which she doesn’t, she has
saved money, nevertheless, for she
has obtained a more wholesome
article of diet more often than not,
and she has received it fresh from
the farm, besides saving the time
and carfare of a rtip downtown.
"She depends upon the neighbor
hood grocery store for nothing much
more than the small necessities, for
experience has taught her that she
can not expect much more in that
quarter. She realizes that the small
grocery of the neighborhood must
charge a maximum price In order
to live at all. She has no possible
quarrel with the neighborhood gro
cery—she merely knows it is not a
particularly inviting place In which
to make her pennies stretch very far.
"I can tell you what I would LIKE
to do about it, and what I SHOULD
BE able to do about, and the which
if I could do about it, could save
myself a pretty sum every month
and get a better quality of food in
my home, moreover!
"If we had in Atlanta a big Center
market—or. better still, a Center, a j
Northern and a Southern market —I :
could go there and get the best of
everything the markets afford, and
get It exactly when, how and after
whatever fashion 1 desired.
"In one of these city markets it is
possible to shop with a maximum of
result, and at a tremendous saving of
time and nerve tissue, moreover.
"Articles offered for sale in one of
these markets necessarily are of the
best quality (for the money asked)
to be obtained. As kissing goes by
favor, so patronage in a big market,
where contrasts in displays are im
mediately observable, goes to the
most deserving.
"If Marketman A !n a big market
offers me tomatoes at so much per
dozen or per pound, he must make
me the offer in the full and steady
ing knowledge that right next door to
him, in the neighboring stall. Market
man B also has tomatoes for sale.
Whichever has the best tomatoes for
the price gets my coin!
"A shopper can not very well con
trast the wares of Groceryman
this corner, and Groceryman B. on
yonder corner, two or three blocks
away, for one can not carry things
of that sort in one’s head. But when
they are in a big market, ’side by
each,’ as the saying goes, one can tell i
mighty quick which is which!
Salesmanship Inspired.
"A city inarget Inspires and
prompts salesmen to offer only the
best of everything for the price ask
ed —it makes it a necessity that the
marketman offer 3. maximum of ma
terial for a minimum of charge.
Moreover, what he may lose in mar
gin of profit by reason of this change
—as compared with his present meth
ods of selling his goods—he more
tlian makes up in the increased vol
ume of business he does. He has
the additional satisfaction, too, of a
perfectly pleased patronage, without
any loss whatever in the total of
money hy makes.
"It is astonishing to me that At
lanta has no city market. There is
hardly a city of its size In the na
tion that has not two or mon? —and,
as a matter of fact, I know of many
much smaller cities that have city
markets to make glad the hearts of
housekeepers.
"There must be a mistaken idea
somewhere as to the value of a city
market, or Atlanta long ago would
have had one or more.
“There is another thing in favor of
the city market, and any physician
will affirm this statement —it is pos- I
sible to enforce sanitary regulations
therein with far less expense and far
bigger results than it is to enforce
them in scattered markets, small and
managed by dealers unmindful of the
great part sanitation plays nowadays
in the matter of conserving health
and happiness among the people.
"Seldom, if ever, are bad odors en
countered in city markets —the dealer
who manages a stall that fails to come
up to every reasonable sanitary' regu
lation is hopelessly outclassed by his
neighbor who does—and whose ef
forts may be plainly seen and imme
diately contrasted.
"I honestly believe that I can take
a dollar bill into a well-regulated city
market and make it go as far as a !
dollar and a quarter now goes—and if
I could do that in Atlanta, I could
solve part of MY problem of the high
cost of living, all right!
"I know I can do this, because I
HAVE Avne it in another big city in
which 1 once lived—a city in no way
more delightful, more inviting or more
charming than our own dear Atlanta,
at that! |
will make food prices lower. What
he says is that much of the high cost
of living in Atlanta is due to the fact
that the city is the center of an agri
cultural region which produces little
to eat.
Most of Atlanta’s food has to be
brought in from other and distant
sections. The weevil, by making the
cotton crop precarious, will force the
farmers to raise other crops, greatly
increasing the supply of home-grown
food and decreasing, in direct propor
tions, the amount of money spent in
freights, middlemen’s profits and
other economic wastes.
Professor Wallace points to Missis
sippi as a State where conditions
have worked out In just this way.
Heat That Turns Winter Into Summer
How do you feel about the cold winter winds that will soon be blowing through every crack and crevasse? And
do the chill days that are suretocome on the heels of winter’s first blast make you shiver when you thinkof them?
Is your home adequately equipped with a heating system that laughs at cold weather—that keeps every room
in the house com fortably heated every hour in the day ? If it is not, you should begin making prepa
rations for having filK such a heating plant installed. The Original Moncrief Furnace is the acme of per
fection in the war m-air furnace world and we are the only people in Atlanta who sell the Orig
inal
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The first Moncrief furnace was made by the T. E. Henry F urnace Co., or its predecessors, many yea rs ago, i id it was built just as every ginuine Mon
crief is built to-day, with the primal idea of quality always in mind. Every detail of its construction is based on scientific principles; a fact demonstrated by
its wonderful record as a simple, durable, economical and powerful heater. The mere fact that there are nine hundred Original Moncrief furnaces in service in
Atlanta proves what we say about our furnace. •
A Moncrief Furnace for Your Home
A MONCRIEF Furnace in your home would enable you and those dependent
on you for warmth and comfort to pass the winter months pleasantly, comfort
ably, and with the dangers of a half heated house eliminated.
You have doubtless been considering the mattter of installing a warm-air fur
nace. but for one reason or another have kept putting it off. This advertisement is
written for the express purpose of impressing on you the importance of quick action.
There are six months of winter ahead. Dreadfully cold some of it will be, and with
an inadequately heated house, you can not help but feel the chill of some of the days
and nights that arc to come. Act now. Call us over the telephone to-morrow
morning and ask us to estimate the cost of installing an original Moncrief in your
home. If you live out of Atlanta, send us a pencil sketch of your house and ask
us to estimate the cost for you. But act quickly, for winter will soon be here.
Products of Experience From the House of Moncrief
We carry everything in the warm-air heating line, and are in position to furnish any of the supplies needed for repairing or replacing wornout
parts. We also do expert repair work, and despite the fact that wo ns<- a higher quality of goods than is usually found elsewhere, we do our repair
work cheaper than others.
Get the name right—we are the
Moncrief Atlanta Company
R. A. JONES, Manager
73 Walton St. Atlanta, Ga. Phone Ivy 4930
“Mississippi now is raising corn,
sugar can, yams. Irish potatoes, vast
quantities of fruit and truck, and
even wheat.” says Professor Wallace,
“and the farmers were forced to this
only because of the boll weevil.
“Yet I understand that by careful
seed selection and intensive cultiva
tion. the average farmer makes as
much money from cotton as ever he
did, besides raising the other crops.”
The college professor is particularly
Interested in the high cost of living
discussion. Professor Wallace re
marks, with a smile.
"We college men have good cause
to study it.” he says. I have been
with Tech fifteen years.
"I should say the cost of living had
doubled in that time. College sala
ries certainly have not. We’re hard
hit, and disposed to give the problem
close attention. It’s a personal as
well as an academic matter.”
Atlanta’s predicament can not be
considered apart from world-wide
conditions, says the econtfinist.
“General laws,” he remarks, “have
created a world-wide situation where
in the cost of the necessities of life
have risen. Now. I do not wish to
be quoted 1 making anv assertion
tha* one parti ilar thing can be sin
gled out as tl a use of all the trou
ble.
Drift From Farms a Factor.
"I do think, however,* that the one
factor which has been greater than
The cost of the Original Moncrief Outfit shown in
the above illustration is only $120.75, and the instal
lation of the apparatus, in addition to making your
- home a veritable summer house during the hardest
part of winter, will save you from 25 to 30 per cent on
your coal bills.
Moncrief Special and Exclusive Features
All Cast Iron. . v
Moncrief Duplex Grate with large grate surface.
straight and deep fire pot cast extra heavy in two sections.
Top return Hue radiator affording a large radiating surface.
Latest and most improved grate hangers, each grate hanging individually can
be removed without touching a nut or cotter pin; simply take out the bar.
Self-cleaning surfaces. Such cleaning as ma.v be necessary can be attended
readily through the smoke flue, feed door and denn-out door opening.
The Moncrief Beaded doors assuring you an absolutely gas and air tight furnace.
All cup joints deep and roomy. Will burn all grades of hard and soft coal.
The Height. AU Moncrief‘Furnaces are low down and can be set to advantage
in low basements. All collars extend through casings.
Hot water for domestic may be obtained by running a coil in the spe
cial pouch at side of feed door.
Extra large double casings, affording abundant space for the circulation of air.
any other has been the drift from the
farms to the cities There are fewer
producers of the fundamental things
of life and more consumers. Prices
inevitably rise.
"This has been going on for cen
turies. Just now the condition is
acute. We are beginning to feel the
pinch. I believe these things go in
cycles. There will be a return to
normal.
"The general, world-wide law, then,
is that under-production of farm
products, foods, causes high prices.
Atlanta Extreme Example.
“The Government says the cost of
living in Atlanta is exceeded in only
one American city. That means sim-
ply that Atlanta Is an extreme ex
ample of how this universal law op
erates.
“Atlanta is the center of a great ag
ricultural region. The city should
live on its surrounding territory. But
because this territory is devoted al
most exclusively to the growing
one crop, and that crop one whk h
can not be eaten, there is a shortage
of food in Atlanta which perhaps is
more acute than in almost any other
city. Food has to be brought here,
at high expense. Such expenses are,
of coursd. an economic waste.
“Doubtless there are other factors
which explain Atlanta’s high prices.
This, I think, is the greatest.”
7A